Previously we have reported how social networking site Twitter had been used to combat crime, in this post by Matt Tran he told us how a school boy used Twitter to catch a phone thief. The latest use of the site to foil crime involves a man who used his followers to track down the thief who took his laptop.

The man in question is Ottawa based web analyst Sean Power, a few days ago his laptop was stolen while visiting New York. A few days went past until Power remembered he had installed a free tracking program to his laptop called Prey, according to Cnet in the process of tracking down the thief he decided to keep his Twitter followers updated on his exploits.

In his first Tweet which you can see above Power can be seen expressing his joy in tracking down his beloved MacBook, capitalizing on the use of his tracking software he then proceeded to gather more information on the man that was in possession of his computer, using a built in camera he was even able to gain a picture of the assailant.

Power then continued to keep his followers updated with all this newly acquired information and even sent out the thieves location, following this one of his followers headed down to the bar and confronted the guy who had stolen the laptop. After a brief conversation on the phone with Power the thief decided to do the right thing and return his much loved piece of kit.

This just goes to show how powerful social networking is, we don’t know about you but after reading this story we will definitely be downloading Prey onto our computers.

What are your thoughts on this story? Have you ever had any personal experiences like this before you could share with us?